Re: Chicago's Waveform Beachside Music Fest

Matthew Dear is spectacular, got a chance to see him at the science center in la last month after deciding to skip him at sxsw.

Was it Matthew Dear live or a Matthew Dear DJ set? I seen him in a 2 week span last year in Chicago and one was live and the other was a DJ set. The live set was way better than I thought it would be, but his DJ set was a total turd.

Re: Chicago's Waveform Beachside Music Fest

According to their website they are adding another artist on the 29th? A little late for additions but I'll take it! Also just snagged tickets for Prydz after party at Studio Paris on the 1st. First trip ever to Chicago and could not be more stoked!

Re: Chicago's Waveform Beachside Music Fest

Due to a ticket fuckup on the part of the promoter, I will only be attending Sunday of the fest. I had a two day pass, but it turned out to be invalid(if you purchased your pass through Clubtix, beware!). The wife and I will be doing the Thugfucker show at Spybar on Friday, Art Department/Visionquest at Smart Bar on Saturday and hopefully a Sunday night after party. Let's dance!!

Re: Chicago's Waveform Beachside Music Fest

This was a fun fest and all of the DJ's I saw were crushing it all day but there were some problems with it.

1 - In order to buy water or beer you had to first wait in a line to buy $2 or $5 drink tickets. Waters were $4 bucks and beers were $5. Now the problem (minus the fact that you now had to wait in two lines in order to get drinks) was that if you only had $5 drink tickets and your order was $4 bucks they couldn't issue you any change back so you automatically had to tip. I'm all for tipping people working hard in the sun getting me drunk but not having a say in the matter is a little bit bullshit if you ask me. Also, I didn't see any refill stations at the venue at all. Maybe I missed it.

2 - Not a major issue but it would have been nice to at least be able to see the water from the beach. They fence they had up blocking the water was covered in banners.

3 - On Sunday the Fire Marshall shut the fest down due to high winds, hail, and storms for about 2 hours for safety reason. I actually agree with this because of recent tragedies with stages collapsing and all but unfortunately the DJ's scheduled to play while it was shut down didn't get pushed back, they got canceled. James Murphy, Pat Mahoney, Shit Robot and a whole bunch of others didn't even get to play. Can't really fault the fest I guess but it sucked.

4 - Idiots and douchebags.

Overall, I think it's great to have a fest like this on the beach. As one of my friends said, it would be cool if they did a folk and roots festival at that site and just let people lounge on the beach and relax and listen to some good bands. Wavefront really had a cool vibe about it but they need to do something about the drink situation.

Re: Chicago's Waveform Beachside Music Fest

Unfortunately, since I didn't get to bed until 10am the next day I didn't make it to the fest on Sunday but a bunch of people I knew went. Here is a pretty great review of the fest. Like I said, it was a cool fest, they just need to do a few tweaks to make it a little better.

"If Spring Awakening was like an all-out-rager that college-bound kids throw the weekend their parents go out of town then Wavefront was the party the parents throw when their kids actually do move into the dorms. No, not old and boring. Professional, experienced, mellow, awesome."

Re: Chicago's Waveform Beachside Music Fest

I don’t have the time to write an in depth review, so I’ll just hit the highlights.

The official festival pre-party at Spybar was fun. Local Chicago DJ Garrett B was solid with his deep house set. We watched Thugfucker for two hours and were pleased with their set as well.

Even though we did not have tix for Saturday of the fest, we decided to go to the beach to check out the situation. It turned out to be a great decision. The fest setup allowed us to experience the sight and sounds from the shoreline. We were able to see all of Visionquest, Art Department and Matthew Dear while swimming in Lake Michigan.

Later that night we went to Smart Bar for the Visionquest/Art Department after party. Art Department’s set was very entertaining. The crowd was the biggest I’ve seen at Smart Bar, but there was still room to dance and move around. We stumbled out into the morning light and grabbed a quick nap back at the hotel.

I was determined to see James Murphy’s set at 2p, so we managed to drag ourselves out of bed and arrive around 1p. The storm that shut down and evacuated the venue had arrived as we were nearing the beach. We waited for things to calm down and made our way to the front gates.

It was a very hot day, but we managed to grab one of the few shady spots. It happened to be on the rail of the North Main Stage. We had planned on seeing everything on this stage anyway, so it worked out perfectly. Danny Daze played was first up and performed noticeably better than the last time I saw him. His mixing was less impatient and more seamless. Lee Foss was next. His set was ok, but nothing special. Benoit & Sergio came on after him and were awesome. It was the second time I’ve seen them and I’d gladly watch them again. We watched part of Guy Gerber and then decided to wander over to the south side for Eric Prydz. Prydz set was good, but we were forced to watch from a distance. Our legs were spent and we sat on some bleachers in between the two main stages.

Sasha went on at sunset and went nuclear. It was the most forceful aggressive set I’ve seen him play. The sound system was considerably louder for him than anyone else I had heard all weekend. My wife was disappointed by the lack of progressive sounds in his set, but I thought it was very good. It was appropriate for what had gone on before him.

We finished up Sunday night back at Smart Bar for their LGBT night. The place was pretty empty. The DJs were enjoyable and it was a nice comedown from an over stimulating weekend.

If I go back to this fest next year, I will do so with no ticket. It was nice to be on the rail for most of the acts on Sunday, but I would gladly watch from the water for free. You can also bring whatever you need to the beach such as booze, shade, chairs and food. Overall it was a fine first year for this fest.

Re: Chicago's Waveform Beachside Music Fest

Nice to know about watching/listening from the beach, although who knows if they'll change that next year. And that Queen! event at Smart Bar definitely has potential, they get some amazing DJs out, but unfortunately, most queers would rather dance to Gaga. It was pretty empty the night I went too, but it was a cool vibe anyway.